“In preparation for tonight’s opening of “Here Today Gone Tomorrow”, ABOVE got to work late yesterday afternoon on painting his message big and bold in one of Sydney’s busiest intersections, Taylor Square. The show opens tonight, 6pm.“
Here Today Gone Tomorrow is supported by Ironlak.
Here’s some show previews:
ARTIST STATEMENT:
The statement “Here today gone tomorrow” has been ringing in my head like a fucking broken record with no DJ to stop it. The skipping record keeps playing over and over getting louder and louder with each new rotation.
Recently I’ve been hit with a lot to say the least. Less than 3 months ago my older brother was killed in an accidental car crash at the young age of 32.
Life can be beautifully fragile and amazingly raw. You never know when your number is going to be called. You’re here today, then gone tomorrow. I’ve been consistently travelling the world and the theme “here today gone tomorrow” applies to how I have been living my lifestyle for the past 10 years. It’s hard to say goodbye when travelling and even harder when you don’t even get the chance. I was deeply moved by the loss of my brother to make the new body of artworks that dealt with the fragility of life, death and how important it is to live each day to the fullest.
The new artworks all have a consistent interwoven theme reflecting the “here today gone tomorrow” statement. For the show I made large wooden arrows with the faces of popular culture figures that have also passed away too young and suddenly. They say “only the good die young” and I’ll agree to that.
Upon arrival to Sydney I quickly noticed the widely common street level promotion of music event posters. Each poster had a very large visible date and location for the respective event. Not only that but all of the posters were taped on top of each other around poles instead of normally glued on to each other thus making it very easy to re-use and peel off without any damage to the poster. I found it applicable and relative to the statement “here today gone tomorrow” being able to peel off literally 100’s of past events posters layers like that of an onion that would date as far back as 12-months ago. Unravelling each new layer was hyper exciting as I never knew what to expect other than a consistent reversing timeline of now expired moments in time.
The WORD/PLAY pieces in the show all speak about life, death, and optimistic ways of how to live everyday as full as you can. I’m happy with the final visual aesthetic of the mash up of using the posters collage, colour, imagery, and the push and pull process of layering each piece to get to its final completed state. The foundation and aim of the show is not to be sad about death, nor fear it but on the contrary to be happy about life and the moments that make up each day of our lives. I hope you can attend the show and get a fun reminder about how wonderful life can be and to appreciate every moment as it comes.
Cheers,
Above. February 2011. Sydney, Australia.